One reason for lack of sleep was knowing that the early morning was last chance to catch an iconic slowtv, so was constantly alert for the alarm and thus every other noise emanating from the street below. The early morning city streets are a buzz with street sweeping, garbage collection, motor bikes etc. making up just some of the cacophony. Managed to get to the tower before sunrise and captured it slowly geting brighter.
Probably ruined a few others shots by standing in prime position for about an hour. Extraordinarily one dude walked right over the camera at one point. When pointed out what he had done he said "I know". Who ever said the French were arrogant....anyway this guy then spent the next 30 mins combing the field for goodness knows what. And searching surrounding bushes. Maybe it was for escargot, don't know.
On the way back to the room the street had become even more alive with parents all escorting their kids to school. Heaps of pushbikes with two seats on the back carrying them. Chaos everywhere. One signifant difference between our two lifestyles is aussie schools have sports grounds. Nothing like that here (at least in the inner cities).
After a catchup rest we headed out for the day with the aim of reaching Monte Marte. Breaking fast in a cafe next to the hotel with coffee and a pistachio muffin. Was good. Diversion along the way to get to the site where SIL got down on one knee for Offspring no.1. Found it but couldn't replicate it as the knees no longer work that way. Possibly caused some damage as well and onlookers suspecting some sort of defecation was taking place.
Walked past Notre Dame on the way and was very pleased we had no need to look inside as the queue looked about 2 hours long. Been there, done that. Suckers. Needed to pay 15Euros for two coffees to cover two pees though.
Back into the bowels off the joint, picked a station close by the mont and after the standard change of lines somewhere obscure got off at the "wrong" station but very insightful as it was full of vervacious locals of a specific coloration of skin. All extremely wound up.
Trying to sell hair brading by showing A4 laminated sheets of all the possible styles as the passengers rode up the escalator. Then outside trying to push peanuts (of all things). Slyly selling earbuds. Guys strung up along the street leaning on the posts as if that square 2 meters was their territory. Totally a different vibe. Suspect it was on the verge of one of those areas people are told to avoid. Then went up a street, got near the greenery of the monastery gardens and they all disappeared as the charm of the old villiage took over. This is the mont, renowned for bohemian lifestyles as a contrast to the city below. And it has an imposing basilica on the top of the hill.
Grabbed a quick bite (lemon crepe) and coke on the pretext for another loo stop and then joined the walking tour. This was very insightful for not only understanding what happened in these parts but also how modern Americans think and behave. Say no more on that one. Picasso was an impressionist - never made that connection before but this is where he and the others hung out to get inspired by breaking the rules of not just the art establishment but also societal norms in order to do so. Inspired they were.
Moulon Rouge, Can Can dancing, the night life, hedonistic stuff they did it all to get that edge, that "je ne sais quoi" in order to make them stand out and make money. Of course they became famous and their outputs valuable once they were dead. So we saw their houses, their nightclubs and restaurants etc.
The tour stopped at the church where our passionate guide revealed her true religious colours. Didn't go in but our guide was a practicing paritioner. Got a good lecture on the relgion because non-blogger had asked why the priests in there had prayed non-stop for the last 200 years. Not sure if the Americans took in about what practicing virtues (like justice) of the good book actually means when it comes to human behavior. Basically it was a slap down if they did understand it.
Another interesting insight was the guy strung up by the Romans had a crown of thorns and that was procured by one of the French Loueys during the crusades and is now down in Notre Dame where they bring it out every Friday morning to gawk at. Who'dathunkit? It's amazing what you can learn when you actually listen. Immediate thought was maybe they should check it for some left over DNA. Could discover that God particle the scientists keep banging on about.
After the rest of the tour group departed we were escorted back through the milling throngs and onto a lovely balcony for a private wine and cheese tasting (because we'd paid for it).
This was a lot of fun where the dude telling us about the wines was having a full glass each time himself. Took us through the whole smell test rigmorale. "What can you smell?" He asked "cigarettes" was the reply. His raised eyebrow was answered by pointing at the dude just upwind behind us which was chain smoking like a steam train using wet coal. Our host also left the bottles on the table so we could've consumed as much as wed've liked, considering the last couple of weeks though interest in that sort of behavior was pretty low. Did learn about line though. Above it and they're all single grape varieties and below it, they blend. The line stretches right across the country at about the latttitude of Lyon. But it's not called the Lyon Line. I think. It was all getting a bit blurry and lost in translation about that point.
Finding the nearest Metro involved a lot of down hills on cobblestones and it was a out thst point one of the new knees started to play up so it got a bit slow from there. The metro station was down a significantly long/deep spiraling staircase. Round and round, down and down. An engineering marvel..We made our way to a recommended shopping strip which turned out to be full of the high end establishments (the Melbourne end of Rue des Francs Bougoise). Had to have yet another drinks stop at a Cafe in order to wee. A pleasant break while blogger blogged and non-blogger shopped.
Took the long way back home in order to wander through the expensive island and caught the locals lounging around on a bridge enjoying the warm setting sun and the view of the river dividing between the two islands.
No one seemed concerned about the possibility of a bottle or glass being knocked into the waters below. Wouldn't happen in the Nanny State that's for sure. A hike to get back on the metro, two trains and home. Last night in France what else does one do but have Greek for dinner. It was just around the corner, and was a good variety to suit everyone. And so back to the room with the tower sparkling away up the street (just need to open the windows and defy death leaning over the railing to see it) the windows needed to be closed as the street is still extremely noisy.
2 comments:
Big day! Look forward to seeing you soon.
Method consists entirely in the order and disposition of the objects towards which our mental vision must be directed if we would find out any truth.
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